Books by Gerald P Boersma
Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology (Oxford, 2016)
What does it mean for Christ to be the "image of God"? And, if Christ is the "image of God," can ... more What does it mean for Christ to be the "image of God"? And, if Christ is the "image of God," can the human person also unequivocally be understood to be the "image of God"? Augustine's Early Theology of Image examines Augustine's conception of the imago dei and makes the case that it represents a significant departure from the Latin pro-Nicene theologies of Hilary of Poitiers, Marius Victorinus, and Ambrose of Milan only a generation earlier.
Augustine's predecessors understood the imago dei principally as a Christological term designating the unity of divine substance. But, Gerald P. Boersma argues, Augustine affirms that Christ is an image of equal likeness, while the human person is an image of unequal likeness. Boersma's careful study thus argues that a Platonic and participatory evaluation of the nature of "image" enables Augustine's early theology of the image of God to move beyond that of his Latin predecessors and affirm the imago dei both of Christ and of the human person.
http://www.amazon.com/Augustines-Early-Theology-Image-Development/dp/0190251360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445711778&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3AGerald+Boersma
Papers by Gerald P Boersma
The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity Reshaping Classical Traditions, 2023
The continuity of the Christian faith with classical philosophy is one of the common variables to... more The continuity of the Christian faith with classical philosophy is one of the common variables to Augustine’s three earliest dialogues. Augustine is particularly interested in the relation between faith and reason or, more precisely, the relation between Christian auctoritas and reason. This chapter contends that Augustine does not conceive of authority and reason as two diverse paths of ascent, but as distinct elements that comprise one integrated path of ascent. For Augustine, authority and reason are coordinate means of ascent to wisdom and happiness. The dialectal character of authority and reason operate in tandem to purify and enlighten the soul for the ascent to God. In the dialogues, it is the role of reason to offer an intellectus fidei, an intellectual account of the mysteries delivered by authority.
Christianity and Literature , 2025
T. S. Eliot's conversion was especially a conversion to the truth of dogma. And, for Eliot, no do... more T. S. Eliot's conversion was especially a conversion to the truth of dogma. And, for Eliot, no dogma proved more decisive at the time of his conversion than the dogma of the Incarnation. In a particularly heightened way, the Ariel poems express the agony of journeying towards a confession of the Incarnation-a journey that Eliot himself made under the literary and theological tutelage of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes. The speaker of "A Song for Simeon" offers a counterpoint to Eliot's conversion. The speaker is unable to accept the radical truth of the Incarnation. Instead Eliot's Simeon concludes, "I am dying in my own death.
Logos, 2025
The article explores Aquinas's concept of prudence as a form of connatural knowledge, emphasizing... more The article explores Aquinas's concept of prudence as a form of connatural knowledge, emphasizing how practical wisdom arises from experience, habituated inclinations, and the attunement of will and reason to particular, singular circumstances. Topics include the nature of connatural knowledge, the role of prudence in practical action, and the development of intuitive moral discernment through experience.
New Blackfriars , 2025
Among the less considered 'conversions' of the Confessions is the conversion of grief. The Confes... more Among the less considered 'conversions' of the Confessions is the conversion of grief. The Confessions traces how Augustine learns to grieve justly and with hope. Augustine's grief in book four is presented in stark contrast to his grief in book nine. In many ways, these two books serve as a counter image of each other. The striking narrative similarities that Augustine presents between the death of his boyhood friend in book four and that of his mother in book nine serve, however, to highlight the significant differences that Augustine wants to accent between these two experiences of death and grief. Holding these two scenes next to each other allows us to witness another profound conversion of the Confessions, namely, how Augustine learns to grieve profound loss in hope.
Early in the morning of December 16 last year, Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio, abbot of the Royal... more Early in the morning of December 16 last year, Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio, abbot of the Royal Chapel of the San Gennaro Treasure, of the Cathedral of Naples, entered the chapel to see if the miracle had already happened. But no, examining the safe, he confirmed that nothing was, as yet, out of the ordinary. December 16 is a special day in the Diocese of Naples: it is the day Neapolitans celebrate the miraculous preservation of their city from the volcanic eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius. On December 16, 1631, a river of burning lava rushed upon the city. The residents prayed fervently to the city's patron, St. Januarius, to spare them. Inexplicably the flow of lava suddenly abated. Since that time, St. Januarius has always had a privileged place in Neapolitan lore. But his connection with the city is much more ancient. Januarius was a fourth-century martyr-bishop who was beheaded during the persecutions of Diocletian. His body was brought to Naples and interred in the Church. At the site of his beheading, some of his blood was collected in a glass vial and brought to his tomb in the Cathedral of Naples. This blood liquifies in predictable intervals, usually three times a year: on the first Saturday in May, being the day the saint's relics were established in Naples, then on his feast day, September 19, and finally on December 16, the day he saved the city from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. And, because it was December * 1 I dedicate this article with gratitude to Fr. Francis Di Spigno, O.F.M., whose generosity, friendship, and liquid heart are a profound grace to me and countless others.
Augustinus, De Genesi ad litteram (Brill), 2021
In the first book of De Genesi ad litteram Augustine (1) establishes exegetical principles for hi... more In the first book of De Genesi ad litteram Augustine (1) establishes exegetical principles for his "literal" exposition of Genesis and (2) relates the fundamental theological principles that will inform his reading of the text. These latter theological principles particularly inform how one articulates the relation between Creator and creature and, by implication, the relation between eternity and time, the immutable and the mutable, the immaterial and the material, etc. Such theological questions necessarily arise from even a cursory glance at the initial verses of Genesis. (For example, how we are to understand God speaking?) In Book 2 Augustine applies these exegetical and theological insights as he enters into the text of the creation of the elements. Augustine presents a close textual analysis of Genesis 1:6-19: the second, third, and fourth days of creation. The recurring motif of this exposition is that a literal exposition of these verses corresponds to the natural order of the world that we experience. That is to say, a coherent, rational, and even scientific account of the world can be corroborated with the ad litteram reading of Genesis. Augustine follows the sequence of Gen 1:6-19. Book 2 considers (1) the nature of the firmament, which separates the waters above the earth from the waters below the earth formed on the second day (vs. 6); (2) the separation of the water from the dry land, which seems to stand apart from the days counted (vs. 9); (3) the creation of vegetation on the third day (vs. 11-12); and, finally, (4) the creation of the heavenly lights on the fourth day (vs. 14-18). I will consider five important theological features that come to the surface of Book 2 as Augustine follows the narrative of the second, third, and fourth days of creation. First, Augustine insists that the created order exhibits integrity and intelligibility (or "proper nature"). This theme comes to the fore in Augustine's elaborate discussion of how a scientific account of water above the heavens might corroborate Scripture's description of the water above the firmament (vs. 6). Second, the natural order is intelligible on account of its preexistence in the divine Word. Augustine's doctrine of the divine ideas safeguards the fundamental distinction between Creator and creature and avoids imagining God as subject to time such that he is involved in a process of creating in time and space. Third, Book 2 serves as a hermeneutical guide for reading Scripture
The Thomist , 2022
Così la mente mia, tutta sospesa, mirava fissa, immobile e attenta, e sempre di mirar faceasi acc... more Così la mente mia, tutta sospesa, mirava fissa, immobile e attenta, e sempre di mirar faceasi accesa. Thus all my mind, absorbed, was gazing, fixed, unmoving and intent, becoming more enraptured in its gazing.
Logos, 2022
Where does St. Augustine appear in Dante's Commedia? As a literary character, the historical figu... more Where does St. Augustine appear in Dante's Commedia? As a literary character, the historical figure of the bishop of Hippo does not appear. We might expect Dante to place Augustine in Paradiso X, in the fourth sphere, the sphere of the Sun, along with the other theologians-Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Boethius, Dionysius the Areopagite, Isidore of Seville, Bede, and Richard of St. Victor, to name a few leading lights who have a place there. But Augustine does not appear there (or elsewhere). We have to wait until the penultimate canto-Paradiso 32-to discover his name-and only his name-(almost inadvertently) dropped among unnamed others (e altri). 1 The virtual absence of Augustine in Dante's Commedia is baffling, but also beguiling. After all, no one-save the apostle Pauldoes as much as Augustine to cement Christian theology. The Doctor of Grace towers above the patristic era. Augustine's authority is of a singular character (recall that Aquinas simply refers to him as The Theologian). Why, then, this striking omission by the mystic Florentine poet? 2 In the Commedia Augustine does not speak, he is not spoken to; in fact, he is not spoken about.
Augustine’s Confessions and Contemporary Concerns, 2022
Abbreviations an. quant. De animae quantitate c. Jul. Contra Julianum CCSL Corpus Christianorum. ... more Abbreviations an. quant. De animae quantitate c. Jul. Contra Julianum CCSL Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina ciu. Dei Du civitate Dei conf. Confessiones contra acad. Contra academicos de or. De oratore en. Ps. Enarrationes in Psalmos Enn. Enneades ep. Epistulae Gn. litt. De Genesi ad litteram Io. eu. tr. Iohannis Euangelium tractatus, In leg. Man Pro lege Manilia or De imperio Cn. Pompeii lib. arb. De libero arbitrio nat. b. De natura boni OSHT Oxford Studies in Historical Theology rep. De republica retr. Retractationes s. Sermones sol. Soliloquia trin. De trinitate Tusc. Tusculanae Quaestiones uera rel. De uera religione WOSA Works of Saint Augustine 1. trin. 11.1.1.
Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God, 2022
International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2021
This article seeks to account for the nature of human justice in
the City of God. I argue that fi... more This article seeks to account for the nature of human justice in
the City of God. I argue that finite justice, for Augustine, is participatory;
it always ‘refers’ itself to the font of justice from which it overflows; it is
always received by participation in Christ’s justice. This claim implicates
both of Augustine’s central adversaries in the City of God, namely, imperial paganism and Pelagianism.
The Bible in Christian North Africa , 2020
Principles of Augustine's early exegesis
Nova et Vetera, 2020
Augustine’s theology of the rationes seminales articulated in De Genesi ad litteram.
Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 2020
A theological analysis of T. S. Eliot’s poem, “Journey of the
Magi.”
Review of Metaphysics , 2019
This article is an analysis of the Socratic account of love presented by Diotima in Symposium 210... more This article is an analysis of the Socratic account of love presented by Diotima in Symposium 210a–212a. I explore and respond to two philosophic objections to this account of love. First, that it is self-absorbed and, second, that it is incapable of loving a particular person. I argue that this criticism misses the mark. Diotima’s account of eros is not so much egotistical, as ordered to an objective good. Further, in the final analysis, eros is not grasping and acquisitive, but generous and diffusive. Finally, I argue that the Socratic account of love is, in fact, especially well equipped to love the particular.
Ambrose's De Isaac as Baptismal Antropology, 2017
The broad contours of Augustine's critique of Stoic virtue theory in De civitate dei 19.4 finds a... more The broad contours of Augustine's critique of Stoic virtue theory in De civitate dei 19.4 finds a fascinating analogue in Theodor Adorno's theory of immanent critique: Augustine 'enters' into Stoic virtue theory and criticises it from its own postulates, illustrating the striking implausibility of Stoic orthodoxy when lived out in concreto and the absurd, but logical, conclusions to which one is necessarily carried by Stoic ethics. Through this deconstruction, Augustine clears a space to propose his own virtue ethic. Augustine maintains that a Stoic virtue ethic fails to deliver on its promised eudaimonistic ends because it lacks a robust eschatological vision. For Augustine, the Christian faith offers a more viable virtue ethic.
Uploads
Books by Gerald P Boersma
Augustine's predecessors understood the imago dei principally as a Christological term designating the unity of divine substance. But, Gerald P. Boersma argues, Augustine affirms that Christ is an image of equal likeness, while the human person is an image of unequal likeness. Boersma's careful study thus argues that a Platonic and participatory evaluation of the nature of "image" enables Augustine's early theology of the image of God to move beyond that of his Latin predecessors and affirm the imago dei both of Christ and of the human person.
http://www.amazon.com/Augustines-Early-Theology-Image-Development/dp/0190251360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445711778&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3AGerald+Boersma
Papers by Gerald P Boersma
the City of God. I argue that finite justice, for Augustine, is participatory;
it always ‘refers’ itself to the font of justice from which it overflows; it is
always received by participation in Christ’s justice. This claim implicates
both of Augustine’s central adversaries in the City of God, namely, imperial paganism and Pelagianism.